1938 (31 page)

On August 3 the baptisms of Jews started up again at the Anglican church. A temporary incumbent, the Reverend Fred Collard, took over from Hugh Grimes. Collard was an unusual priest: sixty-eight years old, he was a decorated former stretcher-bearer who had risen through the ranks in the medical corps. He was promoted to major on his retirement from the army on the Rhine in 1924 and stayed on in Cologne after demobilization. He had been instrumental in convincing the mayor—Konrad Adenauer—to award the Rathaus chapel to the Anglicans. From 1935 he was attached as a curate to the church of Saint Anne and Saint Agnes in the City of London—Batty’s church. Possibly Batty ordained him in 1936, and even if he did not, the bishop certainly knew all about him and would have been behind his appointment in Cologne.

On the same day they let Kendrick go, the Gestapo burst into the apartment of the chaplain to the British consulate (Grimes) at Lustig Preangasse 10. They discovered a large number of Jews receiving instruction into the Anglican rite in what was billed as a temporary chapel; the church across the road was being redecorated. The Gestapo drove the crowd away and led off Grimes’s locum tenens, Collard, as well as the forty-six-year-old Pollitzer and an unnamed woman.

Collard was taken to the Metropole and interrogated at length until the Gestapo agent told him, “You can go now.” He was badly shaken and asked for a police escort, as he feared for his life. The Gestapo preferred no charges, but they had ransacked the apartment, impounding the baptismal register for a while and confiscating all the money that had been collected from the Jews by Richter and Pollitzer. The latter was demanding an introduction fee of fifty RM a head.

Candidates for baptism were obliged to learn the catechism and the Lord’s Prayer by heart. In return they received an—often backdated—baptismal certificate and the Book of Common Prayer. There was no attempt to convert them properly, and, controversially, there was no immersion in water. Neither Grimes nor Collard ever imagined they would become Anglicans. By the time the loophole closed in September that year, more than 1,800 Jews had become members of the Church of England in this way.

One likely path taken by Grimes and Collard’s freshly baked Christians ran through Yugoslavia. Weisl recorded on August 29 that no anti-Jewish legislation had been introduced there yet and that there were a “few hundred refugees in Yugoslavia.” That the Gestapo were also perfectly well aware of what was going on in the Anglican chaplaincy is clear from a report from Bovensiepen, the Gestapo chief in Eisenstadt, dated August 11: “In recent days the emigration has proceeded very slowly from here because Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and various other countries have either stopped transit or entry to their territories. They [the Jews] will try anything in order to receive an entry visa to a foreign country. A number of Jews have taken the decision to have themselves baptised according to the Anglican rite in order to obtain permission to cross Yugoslavia and enter Greece.”

In Vienna Collard was also working overtime after the Gestapo gave him back his register. Huge numbers of hopefuls lined the Lustig Preangasse. Latterly he had started baptizing only every second day, because he needed to drill the candidates in their catechism. He was receiving more and more Hungarian Jews, possibly because they could no longer enter their own country without Christian credentials. Collard—and Grimes before him—baptized many babies, but they also converted several people in their eighties.

The British Union of Fascists member George Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers witnessed the scene and rang alarm bells for those of his fellow countrymen who were not overly fond of Jews:

Approaches to the British consulate in Vienna were blocked with thousands of Jews clamouring for British visas. A large quota were besieging the British Chaplaincy, applying for baptismal certificates in order to qualify for the special benefits and assistance in registering for employment in England under the schemes of the “Churches’ Committee for Non-Aryan Christians” and other associated bodies. By the unflagging and persevering efforts of the temporary English chaplain, the permanent English chaplain being on leave, hundreds of Viennese Jews were weekly being baptised at the improvised font in the “Office Chapel” at the English chaplain’s residence, which is situated opposite the English church.

The church unfortunately, was not then available owing to it being closed for the annual cleaning and redecorations. Through the courtesy of the temporary English chaplain I received personal assurance that the good work of “conversion” was proceeding with the utmost possible despatch. I gladly undertook to testify to the work of this hard-pressed representative of the Church of England, who, without other clerical assistance, succeeded in converting, preparing for baptism, and baptising so many hundreds of Jewish candidates for entry into the Anglican community, of whom not one in a hundred can speak a word of English. Qualifications for baptism were strictly laid down and complied with. Only those were accepted who were furnished with a) a British visa; b) an Ausweis or release from the Jüdischer Kultur Bund [
sic
], or Jewish congregation; and c) the German police permit to leave the country—and not return. Of course, in addition, converts paid the moderate baptismal fees.

I am informed it takes four days between application and baptism, during that time candidates are entitled to four hours of instruction in the tenets of the faith and in the Catechism. This, it must be admitted, is not too long a period for those who cannot speak a word of English. I am informed, also, that it is through the Anglican door of baptismal waters that alien Jews can most rapidly prepare for “assimilation and absorption” in their new English homeland, flowing with milk—canned in Switzerland and imported under arrangements of the Milk Marketing Board, and honey—imported from Russia under arrangements of the Board of Trade.

Comments like these caused concern in Canterbury, and Bishop Batty was called to account. Lang had already expressed concern about Batty’s desire to send Grimes back to Vienna. They were worried that Grimes might be required to give evidence against Richter. Batty must have lost heart. On September 15, as war loomed, he recalled Collard to Cologne. Six weeks later he made a pastoral visit to Vienna. Little or nothing is known about what he did there, but the conversions ceased.

Grimes and Collard were not alone in their work: 1,702 Jews converted to Catholicism between March and September that year, joining around 8,000 Jewish Christians in Vienna. Father Bichlmaier reported to Cardinal Innitzer on non-Aryan Christians. His Pauluswerk charity was dissolved in August, and Bichlmaier was later deported to the east. In October 1938 two priests and a verger were arrested for falsifying baptismal certificates. Another was taken into custody in February 1939. He admitted to fifty counts. The Swedish church concentrated on Evangelical children of Jewish origin. The Swedish pastor D. Göte Hedenquist also admitted to baptizing thirty Jews.

In the Seegasse was the Swedish Mission to Israel at number 16, which had been seeking Jewish converts since 1920. After 1938, the mission was turned over to helping the Jews with emigration and housing, as well as providing food and a refuge at lunchtime. In his autobiography Hedenquist claimed to have helped over 3,000 Jews and Jewish Christians to escape. Younger members of the mission were permanently in Eichmann’s HQ obtaining the necessary papers.

It was now clear that the British consulate had been a nest of spies. An official called Richter “a first class menace.” Sir Geoffrey Mander tabled one of his usual irate questions in the House, and his fellow MP “Red Ellen” Wilkinson made cross noises until she received a visit from MI5 to warn her that it was not in the public interest to proceed. When the storm broke, Grimes contacted the Foreign Office, which was responsible for his appointment (he was officially chaplain to the ambassador who was no longer an ambassador, since Austria had been subsumed into Germany). The Foreign Office advised him not to return.

On August 25 he went to see Gladwyn Jebb in Whitehall. He was asked about the various people involved in the scandal. Kendrick, said Grimes, was a Catholic. He had not had many dealings with him, although he admitted to asking for nine or ten passports—a clear allusion to a relief channel for members of the embassy staff. When Grimes was asked about Richter, “he registered no surprise and no great dismay. . . . [Richter was] a slippery character, and though very useful had always been treated by him with considerable reserve.” Grimes possibly objected to Richter’s habit of feathering his nest.

With the German opposition hoping for a British declaration of war, its members were spurred into activity to make sure that Hitler could not wriggle free. He needed to be deposed, if not assassinated. Beck remained at the helm; in Berlin at police headquarters Helldorf and Schulenburg were primed. Hans Oster ran between Halder at the General Staff and Weizsäcker in the Wilhelmstrasse. Schacht too was playing his part. The Chancellery was to be stormed by troops commanded by General Witzleben. Erich Kordt had access to the building and was to make sure that the doors to Hitler’s study were kept open. The older men were anxious that Hitler should stand trial, but the younger ones were keener on the Nazi formula: He should be shot trying to escape. It was important to make sure that Himmler’s SS were disarmed immediately. Naturally the Gestapo needed to be taken out and the radio station occupied at the same time.

In London a meeting had been arranged between the diplomat Theo Kordt and Chamberlain’s advisor Sir Horace Wilson on August 23. It took place in Thomas Conwell-Evans’s flat in Cornwall Gardens. Sir Horace was told of the mood of the German opposition, and a report was drafted for the German foreign office in code. Sir Horace issued an assurance that Kordt’s message would be given to the prime minister, but there was no promise of support. Theo Kordt was already doctoring all his reports from London to make the British appear more bent on war than was the case. Hitler’s information on whether the British would act had been supplied by Ribbentrop, who was more bellicose than his master. He insisted that the British would not move a muscle, and he wasn’t wrong.

Weizsäcker and Erich Kordt decided to send another message to the British government, to evince the declaration their plan required. This time it was transmitted by the Kordts’ cousin Susy Simonis. The message provided exact details of Hitler’s plans to go to war and his refusal to believe that the British and French would stand in his way. Susy Simonis committed the whole text to memory and took it to Theo Kordt in London on September 5. Kordt then wrote it down and conveyed it to Sir Horace Wilson in his office in Downing Street. Sir Horace promised to transmit the message to the foreign secretary and told Cadogan of the visit. A secret meeting between Theo Kordt and Halifax was arranged at Downing Street for September 7. He entered Number 10 by the garden. Once within, Kordt made it clear to Halifax that he had come as a representative of the opposition and proceeded to repeat the need for a clear and unequivocal statement of intent on Britain’s part. He then described what would happen if this were to happen: Hitler would be eliminated. Halifax promised to inform the prime minister, but nothing ensued. Ciano summed the position up on August 29, when he said, “The English [
sic
] will do anything to avoid a conflict.”

Weizsäcker sent for his friend, the Swiss high commissioner in Danzig, Carl Burckhardt, and implored him to get in touch with the British. The only way forward, he said, was to send someone who could shout back at Hitler: “None of these all-too-polite Englishmen of the old school. If Chamberlain comes, these louts will triumph and proclaim that some Englishman has taken his cue and come to heel. . . . They should send an energetic military man who, if necessary can shout and hit the table with a riding crop; a marshal with many decorations and scars, a man without too much consideration.” Realizing the urgency of the situation, Burckhardt went hotfoot to Berne, where he roused the British minister from his bed. He was able to tell him of Beck’s resignation and its cause. He followed this up by calling R. A. Butler, minister of state in the Foreign Office, and once again he presented Weizsäcker’s views. In Geneva he consulted colleagues at the League of Nations about who was a suitable strong man to send to Hitler. The name suggested by Weizsäcker was General Ironside, a tough and powerfully built soldier who possessed the rare advantage of speaking fluent German. In the event, however, it would not be Ironside but Chamberlain who bearded Hitler in his lair, and compromise took the place of tough talk.

I
n September, Chamberlain went north to declare war on the grouse, while Ambassador Henderson returned to Berlin and entertained Weizsäcker at dinner on the 2nd. Hitler was in his mountain aerie dreaming of Prague. It had been the ambassador’s idea that Chamberlain should meet Hitler face to face; that way, he thought, the bellicose Ribbentrop could be shouldered out of harm’s way. Henderson appears to have informed the German of Chamberlain’s ostensibly top-secret plans, because the British premier didn’t tell his “Inner Cabinet” until the 8th and the main British cabinet did not learn of the idea of the visit to Hitler until the 14th.